Nurses Accused of Taking Outrageous Action to Keep Newborns Quiet

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A hospital in the Philippines is under fire as multiple parents have come forward accusing nurses of gagging newborns with tape.

The nurses’ alleged reason?

To shut the babies up.

Image via Rye Kido/Facebook

The issue at the Cebu Puericulture and Maternity Center was initially brought to light by Rye Kido, who posted photos on Facebook of his newborn son Yohannes with tape on his mouth.

In the post, from May 9, Kido accuses the hospital of mistreating his son.

“(My partner) Jasmine immediately asked the attending nurse ‘why is there tape over his mouth?’ and the reply she got from the nurse was ‘your baby was TOO NOISY so i put that over his mouth….’ Kido wrote on Facebook.

“They handle your children there like puppies out of a dog pound,” Kido wrote. “I personally have seen this with my own eyes and I am very surprised this is what people call ‘a respectable establishment.’”

The photos led to an investigation and hearing, during which hospital administrators backed up nurses who said the tape was placed on Yohannes for medical reasons — not to shush him.

“My baby Blair was also taped during her stay at the Maternity,” the 22-year-old mother reportedly wrote. “She was only 2 days old when the photo was taken.”

The mother, whose identity was not made public by the Cebu Daily News, said nurses offered her the same explanation they had offered Kido, and that she decided to come forward after learning of the hospital’s denial of the forcible baby-shushing practice.

“They said their reason (for taping the pacifier to the newborn) is to keep my baby quiet because she was noisy and always crying,” she told the outlet.